Archive for July, 2015

5½ years for sexual assault

June 6, 2015, midnight

AN Albury man, who sexually assaulted a teenage girl after breaking into her family’s home intending to steal items, has been jailed for 5½ years.

Judge Gordon Lerve sentenced Colin James Ambrym in the District Court at Albury and imposed a minimum term of 3½ years on a charge of aggravated break and enter committing a serious indictable offence of depriving someone’s liberty.

The sentence was backdated to the date of Ambrym’s arrest and his earliest possible release is April 3, 2018.

Ambrym was identified from a fingprint left on a lap-top computer and DNA from the girl.

The random home invasion happened in central Albury on June 21 last year when the victim, 15, was at home alone.

She was sitting on a couch in the lounge room with her dog when Ambrym entered the house through a closed, but unlocked back door.

The dog began to growl and the victim saw Ambrym standing inside the house carrying her laptop, a DS game console and mobile phone in his arms.

When he saw her, Ambrym put the items down and put his hand over the girl’s mouth to stop her making any noise or calling for help.

He walked the victim towards the kitchen-dining area with his hand still covering her mouth.

Ambrym said he was not going to rape or harm her and indicated he was leaving.

He said he had to tie her up before leaving and indicated for her to take off her jacket.

His hands were put on the victim’s waist as he escorted her to the bathroom.

The victim took off her jacket, top and jeans and was hoping Ambrym would leave.

But he asked the girl’s age, was told and put his hand inside her underwear.

The victim’s father arrived home while that was happening and Ambrym was alerted by noise.

He ran from the house, jumped a back fence and the victim told her father what had happened.

A call was made to police, who established a crime scene and Ambrym’s fingerprint was found on the computer.

The victim was taken to the Albury hospital for examination and a swab from inside her underwear positively matched Ambrym’s DNA.

Two days later an arrest warrant was issued for Ambrym and police released a photograph of him to the media to assist in finding him.

Man jailed for abuse images found on discarded phone

THE sexual abuse of a young girl was only discovered after a man threw away his mobile phone, which was found by a worker at a recycling depot.

Daryl James Lewis-Grant, 27, was charged with 16 offences including rape, indecent treatment of a child and possessing, distributing and making child exploitation material.

He was sentenced to seven years jail in Townsville District Court but will be eligible for parole in December.

He has already spent about two years in custody.

The court was told a worker at a recycling centre found disturbing images of a child on the man’s discarded phone and handed it to police.

Police then tracked down its owner, Lewis-Grant, and identified the child, then aged four, soon after.

Crown prosecutor Amanda Payne said Lewis-Grant was charged with rape after he photographed an act of oral sex on the girl.

The court was told he also took photographs of the little girl touching his groin and ­others of her private parts.

Other child exploitation images and photographs, not depicting the girl, were also found on the phone.

Ms Payne said Lewis-Grant took the photographs of the little girl to “keep a trophy”.

She said he sent text messages to his girlfriend describing her as a “woman kid f—–”.

“The defendant took a photo of the girl’s vagina and sent it to his girlfriend,” Ms Payne said.

The court was told the girlfriend responded quickly with a smiling face emoticon.

In a victim impact statement from the child’s parents, they said their daughter suffered nightmares and would not go anywhere alone.

They said they feared im­ages of their daughter had been “shared around the world”.

“I feel like I have failed as a father,” the statement read. “She is a changed little girl. We’ve changed.”

Barrister Greg Lynham, for Lewis-Grant, said his client had two children with his former partner and their break-up had distressed him.

He said Lewis-Grant had engaged in escalating drug use at the time of the of the offences.

In handing down his sentence, Judge John Baulch SC said the gravity of Lewis-Grant’s offending was aggravated by his victim’s young age and the fact he photographed and distributed the “disgusting things you did”.